A panorama of the lava flow from Puuwaawaa that makes up Puuanahulu. - Baron Sekiya | West Hawaii Today

Native Hawaiians cherish Puuanahulu

by Jen ReederSpecial To West Hawaii Today

Sunday, January 6, 2008 7:36 AM HST

Shirleyann Keakealani remembers that as a child growing up in Puuanahulu in the '50s, life was simple.

There
was no electricity or indoor plumbing in the little community on the
north edge of Kona, and most of the 45 students at Puuanahulu School
were her siblings or cousins. Everyone's parents -- and grandparents --
were paniolos at Puuwaawaa Ranch, and food was put on the table by
hunting and harvesting the area's natural bounty.

"Our days
growing up, we never knew what store was all about -- we lived off the
land," Keakealani said. "We had all types of fruits to eat:
pomegranates, peaches, figs, loquats, the mulberry ... all kinds of
fruits."

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Then,
as now, the town was composed of essentially five families: the
Keakealanis, Alapais, Mitchells, Hoas and Hoopers. Because they were
all blood relatives, the community was extremely close-knit. The
children played together, and the parents helped plan family gatherings.

"The
house that was hosting, they would do the kalua pig. That was all they
would worry about was the pig. Everybody else would bring whatever.
Back then, we didn't have buffets like today. We'd have our poi, our
kalua pig, sweet potatoes and, of course, we'd have raw fish, opihi and
crab. And it would be just one type of dessert, maybe just a banana
loaf bread or pound cake. And we had soda ... and that would be the
luau," Keakealani said, adding plenty of ukulele players would provide
music for the festivities.

Fun times were balanced with hard
work and discipline. Her father worked "from sunup to sundown" on the
ranch, and her mother looked after Shirleyann, her brother Sonny and
sister Carol. Their daily chores included sweeping, mopping and washing
dishes.

"Whenever we sat at the meal table, we would always have
prayer. Whenever we wanted anything, we would always have to say
'please.' And when we'd stand up with our dish, we'd say, 'Excuse me
from the table and thank you for the food,'" Keakealani said. "We
always had to say that."

Possibly Puuanahulu's most recognizable
landmark is the little red and white Baptist church, which was built in
1918 and was later used to teach Bible stories to the area's children
every Tuesday immediately after school. Every Wednesday, all of the
schoolchildren went to "Religious Education" classes held by Mormon
missionaries in the grey building adjacent to the church. All children
went to lessons at both churches, Keakealani said, because their
parents were either Mormon or Protestant and "not biased."

"So we had exposure to two (religions)," Keakealani said. "It was fun."

She
also loved playing with her cousins, sometimes riding down to Kiholo to
visit her cousin Peter Kamanaoa, who was a caretaker for the ranch's
pigs. They would ride canoes and swim and enjoy the natural environment.

"We'd
leave from here early in the morning and we'd get there right at
sunset. The mules were the ones to take us and we just let them travel
at their pace. They knew the way," Keakealani said.

She said
Puuanahulu residents are very connected with the land, from knowing the
area's terrain "like the front and back of our hand," to predicting the
weather. For example, when her mother would hear the formerly abundant
alala crow, she would say "It's time to pick up the laundry -- it's
going to rain."

"And it never ceased to amaze us. Every time the
crows would crow, we had rain," Keakealani said. "And because people
didn't have cars like today, we would always go out and play rain."

Click Photo to Enlarge

Students at Puuanahulu School in the 1950s - Shirley Keakealani | Special To West Hawaii Today

Keakealani said
that she is not proud of her heritage and upbringing in a "haughty" way
but "in the sense that I know who I am, and I know where I came from,
and I know who my family is; I know where my roots are, and they're
here in Puuanahulu."

That pride has been passed along to
subsequent generations. Her niece Kuulei Keakealani, who grew up in
Puuanahulu and now lives in Waimea, said she has "good memories" from
childhood. She remembers meeting all of her cousins at her
grandmother's house to play or ride horses.

"We had Shetland
ponies and the big argument would be who was going to ride with the
English saddle -- no one wanted it." she said. "Our grandma would pack
us a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and a thermos of juice and we
would go riding and have a picnic what we called 'down makai,' which is
now the golf course," Ku'ulei Keakealani said.

She said family
ties were strong, and even though they all knew they were cousins, "we
just thought of everybody as brother and sister."

"I think still today we maintain that relationship of loving," she added.

Family celebrations were special, and at Halloween the children had a route to get "special-made packages" from their relatives.

"We
went to a particular uncle's house, and in our trick-or-treat bag we
would get dried opelo and poi, and red coconut balls," Kuulei
Keakealani said. "We would treasure that more than any piece of candy."

The
community at Puuanahulu was disrupted, however, when Puuwaawaa Ranch
changed ownership and many of the long-time paniolos went elsewhere for
work in the early '70s. Her father, Sonny Keakealani, left to work for
Parker Ranch, where he was employed for the last 27 years; Richard
Smart gave him the house in which he still lives.

"All my life I worked as a paniolo," Sonny Keakealani said.

As
a cowboy on Puuwaawaa Ranch, he and his fellow paniolos ran 7,000
market cows, branding, weaning and rounding them up ("huli pipi"). He
enjoyed his work because the cowboys were made to feel like partners in
caring for the cattle and the ranch.

But a wealthy new owner had
a different outlook, building a private landing strip and a lake house
to entertain guests from the mainland.

"In 1975, you know, we all left," Sonny Keakealani said.

His
daughter, DeeDee Keakealani-Bertelmann, currently resides in Puuanahulu
and said the changes to the community continued in the early '90s with
the housing development Pu'ulani Ranch.

"I think there were like five houses there in 1991," Keakealani-Bertelmann said. "Now I think there are almost two hundred."

The
population surge has meant an increase in traffic, complaints from the
new neighbors about traditional practices like cooking a pig in an imu,
and the loss of access to areas where the family used to roller skate
or ride bikes, she said.

"They put up gates and locked us out," Keakealani-Bertelmann said.

When
the Big Island Country Club was proposed in the early '90s, the county
stipulated that it provide a community center and arena as part of the
impact fee, she said. That is now a place where Puuanahulu families can
gather, and the town holds fundraisers throughout the year to pay for
its maintenance. Events include the Wahine Rodeo, Youth on Horseback, a
golf tournament and the annual country fair, held each November.

Mercy
Alapai, president of the Puuanahulu Community Association, said this
year the community reached its goal of raising enough money to start a
college scholarship program for local students. But the benefits of
events like the country fair are not just financial, she added.

"A
lot of people don't know Puuanahulu exists, but my children are the
seventh generation living in Puuanahulu," Alapai said. "It's an
opportunity for us to gather as families and enjoy each other and have
fun."

Though Puuanahulu has changed over the years, Robert Liwai
Mitchell said memories of his family and upbringing are strong, and he
hopes to pass along what he learned about hard work and
self-sufficiency to his children and grandchildren. He said his parents
taught him "don't be lazy," and that he did a lot of chores like
filling kerosene lamps, boiling bath water and cooking. As a result, he
was successful when he was in the army because he immediately followed
orders. After the service, he returned to Puuanahulu and lives on land
passed down from his grandparents.

Mitchell said though his
family never had a lot of money -- ranchers in his father's generation
earned just $1.50 an hour -- they were always happy.

"Our
richness was together," he said. "Our parents used to go hunting
because they had to, but they made it fun. That's what I tell my
grandkids, too, when you have to go hunting and kill the pig or butcher
the pig, don't look at it like it's a chore. Enjoy it, laugh about it
with your friends."

He is teaching his 16-year-old grandson how
to hunt and clean kalua pigs, and always reminds his children, who live
near him in Puuanahulu, to be prepared for an emergency road closure
and know how to survive.

"We learned that from my parent and my
grandfather," Mitchell said. "To survive, you've gotta go out there and
get the pig, you gotta go out there and catch turkey, and learn how to
cook it."

So many relatives have died or moved that Puuanahulu
in some ways is a memory, Mitchell said. It can be hard to interest the
next generation in family lore because of the "excitement" in
Kailua-Kona and other towns.

"Every time you talk about
Puuanahulu, you talk about uncles, aunties, mom and dad, cousins that
no longer live here," Mitchell said. "It's just the name of a place,
Puuanahulu. It makes me feel good, and it reminds me of the times we
used to have fun up here with the family ... when it comes to a time
when we're not around, maybe they're gonna remember us, and what we did
in this modern time."

Click Photo to Enlarge

Shirley Keakealani stand before the old Puuanahulu schoolhouse Nov. 25
where she attended classes. The schoolhouse grounds are overgrown with
weeds, and part of the schoolhouse was used at one time for a
construction company office. - Baron Sekiya | West Hawaii Today

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There are 1 comment(s) comments to this story.

ISLAND SISTER Y wrote on Jan 8, 2008 11:52 AM:

"
thank you for this story by Shirley Keakealani, I've know the family
for a number of years and always enjoy hearing storys of yesterday and
now. hello to my island ohana from southern california "